Problem solving, involving cats.

[xiphias]

LIS: There's a big moth in the bedroom, please get rid of it.
IAN: Where?
LIS: It's on the wall above the humidifier on your bureau.
IAN: It's too high up; I can't reach it.
LIS: Can the cat?
IAN: What?
LIS: Can you have the cat get the moth?
IAN: Which cat?
LIS: OUR cat.
IAN: Okay, I'll try. Where is the Boop?
LIS: Last I saw, she was in the bathroom.

[IAN goes into the bathroom, picks up the cat -- who, incidentally, had a vaguely guilty look on her face, that's not a good sign -- carries her too the bedroom, and puts her on the bureau next to the humidifier.]

IAN: Cat, look there. No, there. Up, cat. Above you.
LIS: Does she see it?
IAN: She's facing the wrong way.

[IAN turns cat around. Cat looks at some random piece of fluff on the dresser.]

IAN: Look UP, cat. There's a moth there. You LIKE eating moths.

[IAN takes cat's head in his hands and points head directly at the moth. Boopsie suddenly perks up, stretches out her neck.]

IAN: Okay, she sees it.

[CAT whacks moth, which falls down behind dresser.]

IAN: That didn't take long. . .

[CAT looks mournfully down behind dresser. . . ]

Comments

[bandraoi.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed. Anytime I ever try to get my cats to do what they were built to do, they always act like they're blind and can never see the stupid bug, whatever the stupid bug happens to be -- even if the stupid bug is right in front of their nose. Silly felines.

[cheshyre]

Moths are the only bug Boopsie actually takes any interest in.

[oneironaut.livejournal.com]

What drives me insane, particularly since the arthropods in this house probably overwhelm the mammals on biomass as well as numbers, is when two of the cats are playing with the same insect, it crawls onto one of them, and they both forget it was there at all. My dog is actually more effective at catching insects.

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

My old cat had he attitude of "Oh, all right, Bleah, but I'm a cat and I'll eat the damn thing.". She was a fine mouser.

[jehanna.livejournal.com]

*snork*

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

[IAN takes cat's head in his hands and points head directly at the moth. Boopsie suddenly perks up, stretches out her neck.]

I think this is the line that makes the story.


If it were a sailorjim story, the cat would have fallen down behind the dresser and the moth would have flown out the window.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I laughed, because I so know that moment, when they suddenly go "on point" and you know they've finally seen the prey. I've also used cats as bug-disposal mechanisms. The only problem is that they don't always like to *eat* them, so I often end up with bug disposal duty anyway, only now it's been dismembered. Yech.

Actually, one time a cat chasing a moth really discovered mid-snatch that the screen was open, and bolted out the window. She didn't quite "fly," but it was rather a role reversal. (The moth, meanwhile, fled deeper into the house.)

[mathwhiz78.livejournal.com]

That's great!!

I had a spider in the house one day and no one, roommates, gay boy visiting, female visiting, wanted anything to do with it. Bear came over, took a sniff, and ate it. Problem solved!

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

I gather from Lis' later missive that the guilty look has been accounted for.

[cellio]

The least you could have done was to move the dresser for the Boop so she could retrieve her prey. After all, she worked so hard for you. :-)

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Crunchy! Tasty!